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Molecular and Cellular Biology, September 2004, p. 7795-7805, Vol. 24, No. 17
0270-7306/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/MCB.24.17.7795-7805.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Spliced-Leader RNA trans Splicing in a Chordate, Oikopleura dioica, with a Compact Genome

Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology, Bergen High Technology Centre, Bergen, Norway,¹ Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany²

Received 5 May 2004/ Returned for modification 24 May 2004/ Accepted 7 June 2004

trans splicing of a spliced-leader RNA (SL RNA) to the 5' ends of mRNAs has been shown to have a limited and sporadic distribution among eukaryotes. Within metazoans, only nematodes are known to process polycistronic pre-mRNAs, produced from operon units of transcription, into mature monocistronic mRNAs via an SL RNA trans-splicing mechanism. Here we demonstrate that a chordate with a highly compact genome, Oikopleura dioica, now joins Caenorhabditis elegans in coupling trans splicing with processing of polycistronic transcipts. We identified a single SL RNA which associates with Sm proteins and has a trimethyl guanosine cap structure reminiscent of spliceosomal snRNPs. The same SL RNA, estimated to be trans-spliced to at least 25% of O. dioica mRNAs, is used for the processing of both isolated or first cistrons and downstream cistrons in a polycistronic precursor. Remarkably, intercistronic regions in O. dioica are far more reduced than those in either nematodes or kinetoplastids, implying minimal cis-regulatory elements for coupling of 3'-end formation and trans splicing.

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